Norman Granz Quotes

When you give an artist a canvas, you shouldn't tell him exactly how much paint to put on it, or exactly how sharp the images should be. You should let the artist get going.

I believe in creative control. No matter what anyone makes, they should have control over it.

I don't dictate the solos and I don't dictate the vocal harmonies.

There's a good many pictures I'd like to make; we'll see how many I'll be allowed to make.

I'm not here to put my music out on the Internet with no support and then say I got creative freedom. I've got creative freedom wherever I go: I don't create anything that I don't want to create. That's freedom. Since when does a company force you to make something that you don't want to make? If they do that, you leave.

I always say I want creative control. A lot of people don't think about that. And that's what every artist should think of - being creative and not just a puppet.

I can only control what I can, which is what I'm able to do as an artist.

I've seen situations where I think comics are really unrealistic about what creative expression and what the artistic freedom, what that entails.

I like artists to have some freedom.

The worst thing you can do to anybody trying to be creative is to demand participation in their vision.

I practice the artist's golden rule. I wouldn't want somebody telling me how to finish my painting, I'm not going to tell him how to finish his movie or how to shape his movie.

Sometimes being an actor is being a song in someone else's mixtape, so I really understand why more and more actors are making films of their own.

Any system that sees aesthetics as irrelevant, that separates the artist from his product, that fragments the work of the individual, or creates by committee, or makes mincemeat of the creative process will, in the long run, diminish not only the product but the maker as well.

I just like to choose projects that will allow me as an artist to make my art.

The nice thing about the world that I've been able to inhabit for the last couple of years is that I'm given a lot of freedom. Not all artists really get that.

I'm not an artist who has an agenda that's set by the work.

When people start yammering about artistic responsibility, artists become wary. The subtext of such talk is that the arts need to be regulated, which is to say censored.

I wanted to express myself more fully through writing and directing. It just feels like a package deal. Anytime you create anything, you try to exert mastery over your world.

I didn't feel compromised as an actor, and allowed other people's fingerprints all over that aspect.

Giorgio Morandi's paintings make me think that artists may not totally choose, or even control, their subjects or style.

Artists who take on curatorial activities have the advantage of negating the professional hurdles and limitations comprising institutions.

Any artist picks and chooses what they want to paint or write about or say. Photographers are the same.

When artists make art, they shouldn't question whether it is permissible to do one thing or another.

You make a movie that is about what you want it to be about and let people have their reaction to it.

I've been very lucky in the freedom that I've been given. Every artist needs two types of freedom: You need the freedom to - the freedom to come up with an idea or treatment - and then you need the other half of the freedom, and that's freedom from - somebody saying, 'This is great. This is how I want you to do it.'